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| Early morning - half light! |
The logistics of getting in are a credit to Excel and the Warlords, well done. It does take time but once moving, very good, especially the assistance from the Warlords staff on duty on the day.
We (the Old Guard members on parade) completed the set up on Saturday morning by putting the figures out before dispersing to pick up pre-orders and adding even more figures to our respective lead (now white metal) mountains
The set up went mostly without mishap except for a spilt coffee that destroyed our only set of rules for the day as we tried to peel paper pages apart. Lesson for next time, laminated or plastic envelopes!
As last year (Raab - 1809), we did another Command and Colors (C&C) Napoleonics game from the same campaign, Aspern Essling. Our new banners (including a club banner) were on show for the first time and we did get some interest from the public on attending on future club evenings, which hopefully makes the effort worthwhile.
Throughout the day we had a good number of interested people which meant the game made little progress as we happily chatted with them through various matters. We have played this Le Grand Battle scenario before but it takes time and is a close run thing. Ideally you need 4 players per side but we were down to 2 a-side so a lot of work to do.
A lot of interest was shown in the game system (C&C) and we considered asking for some commission from the Box game sellers at the show as we directed numerous people their way. The terrain was also of interest, especially the buildings. These were Warbases generic modules adapted and superbly finished by the excellent Steve Shann, who I am hoping to catch up with at Partizan next month when this game will be on show again.
One chap was particularly interested in the orange used on the Guard heavy cavalry - it was Foundry Orange with a terracotta base.
As already mentioned, the game made little progress on the day with the Austrians avoiding attacking the centre (dominated by a Grand Battery and the Granary) and trying to sneak down the wings, with mixed results. The left wing made progress, eventually; the right wing fell back from Aspern after losing a number of battalions to fire from the French Legere holding the town.
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| Austrian centre with the Granary in the background |
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| French line behind Aspern await the Austrians |
Overall another great day and a great Salute, it certainly felt busier to me than previous years. The main drawback is not getting to walk around the show and talk to the other gamers and traders but there are other shows for that.
Cannot wait for Salute 2019. Plan is to do another game but not sure which yet, Vimiero (1808) or Utitza (1812)?
